Classical Music!

[anoni]

So what do you furs like? Do you like to get epic with Bach's iconic Symphony 5. in C minor? Do you like to build suspense with Hall of the Mountain King? Do you like to fly over Vietnam with Ride of the Valkyries or weep in the rain with moonlight Sonata? What's your favourite classical song and what do you tend to listen to?

[Kozy]

I'm not too picky, I've listened to classical since I was tiny. I've been listening to symphonic poems and promethian pieces recently, they always take me to other places.

[ShilaSiku]

I always listen to classical solo piano when I am doing school work

[Sigcutio]

Allow me to introduce you guys to one of the greatest Russian romantic composers Sergei Rachmaninoff


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yJpJ8REjvqo


This is one of my favorite pieces and the piano is a standout instrument here. How it is used to begin the entire piece is just so powerful and moving. I feel that the piano tells a story the way it weaves in and out throughout.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rHLwG3ioD4Y&list=FLLzP-SFcIGLRxOt911EHJdA&index=615
Apparently someone else thought so too 

[ShilaSiku]

that was amazing

[Caesium Iodide]

I like all kinds of classical music, I'm not picky with which composer I listen to. Classical is just easy listening to me and fits a calm mood better. I also listen to classical to fall asleep and when I work on schoolwork.

[saph the sergal]

i play fox amoore mostly so i can do things

[ShilaSiku]

I like all kinds of classical music, I'm not picky with which composer I listen to. Classical is just easy listening to me and fits a calm mood better. I also listen to classical to fall asleep and when I work on schoolwork.

Same here

[The Magic Otter]

Two of my favourite classical pieces are 'moonlight sonata' and 'the blue Danube'

[SadDubwool]

Im not really sure if this is in the same genre as classical but it is still a amazing piece of music to me....
www.youtube.com/watch?v=yd7MFXzOyqU

[MaskaTheOtter]

I have always enjoyed Brahms' 4th Symphony In E Minor.

[Trixsie Vixen]

I like most true classical (esp Mozart and Beethoven) but enjoy Baroque through Romantic.  I love piano pieces (being a pianist) but full symphonic work is where it's at for me.  To see live it's like watching magic being made, a sum greater than the whole of the individuals.  But I like weird twists on classical pieces too.


This performance of Summer from Vivaldi's Four Seasons on accordion... it should be funny but I find it spectacular.


Extreme Accordion Skills

[Kozy]

I don't get Wolfgang Mozart, his music is very minimal and generic for the time, that's why he had so many compositions. Beethoven is great though. Of all the Mozarts I prefer Leopold Mozart, he came first anyway. It's the same for Vivaldi, of all the seasonal suites I find him syrupy and among the worst.

Romantic is my preference, romantic is all about counter-culture, scenes, incidence and drama. It's like a soundtrack but as with the symphonic poems, can be very magical and extraordinary at the same time. Modern classical like The Planets is interesting, too, it almost doesn't sound like anything before it.

I always find chamber music interesting to watch, or something very posh at a restaurant and such if you know what I mean.

For romantic I like my imagination to take me over. The symphonic poems are like animation in the mind, no wonder Disney and other greats referenced its works in say Fantasia, Sorcerer's Apprentice, etc. It's the foundation to the modern wonders in soundtracks and such, the evolution of spectacular music.

[Trixsie Vixen]

Well, I don't know if I can let that go without adding my two cents


The Classical period (where we find W A Mozart) was in art, architecture and music a departure from the fluff and decoration of the Baroque period and in essence a retro celebration of Western tradition.  So simplicity was the ideal, not in the sense of easy but more like perfection.  Newtonian physics showed the order to the universe and that was the principle which underpinned the style.


So it's true to say Mozart represented the apex of his craft within that style.  He was minimal in the sense that any unnecessary notes, structure or decoration were gilding the lily of otherwise "perfect" music.  He was generic both in that he adhered to the style of the time but also that he is the gold standard by which other composers of the time are measured (even Haydn who came first). 


As to why he had so many compositions, whether his style is to one's taste or not, it is not because his music was just very basic and he churned it out like some hack.  He was simply a genius who had enormous creative drive.


He loved improvisation and dirty jokes and in modern times I think he would have been just as amazing as a giant of jazz.


The tragedy of his short life is that, unlike Beethoven, he didn't get to move with the times and write Romantic work.


So by all means, if he's not you're thing that's fine, but chances are what you really mean is you don't like the classical period and if you do like some other work from the same era chances are the lack of ability of the composer is what create the "imperfection" which is what appeals.  After all the counter-culture of Romanticism is basically a cry of "hey this perfection isn't as good as it's cracked up to be!".


A friend of mine who hates Mozart puts it this way: "I don't like neat music and Mozart was the neatest composer of all time"


Anyway here's one of Mozart's works where he uses his neatness for an entirely dirty result


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C78HBp-Youk

[anoni]

I've always found "perfect" music to be deeply satisfying, while I am one for some imperfect tunes I do head more towards well structured and organized music, not a jazz fan for example.